Update on the O’Brien-Kelly Family in County Carlow, Ireland

Bob Gray, January 2017

Introduction

After doing the page on the O’Brien-Kelly Family in County Carlow, Ireland, I did similar research on another set of my mother’s great grandparents, Richard O’Connell and Johanna Kennedy. That research taught me even more about the documents available for genealogical research in Ireland. Therefore, I revisited the O’Brien-Kelly family to see what else can be learned about their time in Ireland.

A key conclusion of The O’Connell-Kennedy Family from County Cork, Ireland was the fact that additional information may be available in the hand written source documents for published census substitutes, especially the Griffith’s Valuation that proved so useful in the initial study of the O’Brien-Kelly family. The published Griffith’s Valuation was used to identify where the O’Brien-Kelly family lived in the early to mid-1800s. Publishing the Primary Valuation of Tenements or Griffith’s Valuation took several years to acquire the information and compile it. The National Archives of Ireland provides details of the process used in developing the valuation records. According to the National Archives of Ireland site, there were four distinct kinds of books involved: Field, House, Tenure, and Quarto. The Field Books contain information on the valuation of agricultural land. The House and Quarto Books were for cities and towns. The Tenure Books were usually for rural areas and some towns. This update started with a search of these books at the National Archives of Ireland portal. Like all the other records from this time period in Ireland, many, but not all, of the books have survived.

Griffith’s Valuation Source Books

A search for source books at the National Archives of Ireland identified three books for Coolroe, County Carlow where the O’Brien-Kelly family was known to live. One is a Field Book from September 1841. There are three pages for Coolroe in the book and Henry Bruen, the owner of all the land in Coolroe, is the only person identified. Pages 20, 21, and 22 describe the land in Coolroe in terms of arable, pasture, and waste. A typical description for the parcels is one third arable and two thirds pasture or vice versa. This confirms the previous finding that the land was used for some crops as well as raising cattle.

There are two House Books for Coolroe, one from May 17, 1843 and another from February 17, 1851. The House Book dated 1843 is marked as partially illegible and only three occupants other than Henry Bruen are identified. They are John Moore, Richard Prendergart, and Hugh Murray. Although difficult to read, the rest of the page seems to be discussing the types of buildings on the properties. There is a Patrick Lyons listed in the margin, but it isn’t clear if he occupied a house. In addition, two names have been crossed out, John Baulke, and John Ha____.

The 1851 House Book pages for Coolroe, shown below, are consistent with the published Griffith’s Valuation records. Unfortunately, the entry for William Bryan at the top of the last page does not include any additional information about the property. The property is valued at five shillings. There are two properties in the Coolroe house book that are identified as a house and a description of the property is included.

One house, occupied by James Pendergardt, is rated at a quality of 3B which translates to:

Description of House: 3 = Thatched house with stone walls with mud or puddle mortar; dry stone walls pointed or mud walls of the best kind.

Condition of House: B = Medium, slightly decayed, but in good repair.

The size of the Pendergardt house is given as 42 feet wide by 18.5 feet deep by 6.25 feet high. The number of measures is given as 77 which is consistent with the width times the depth divided by 10. This house was valued at 1 pound, 12 shillings, and 1 pence. The currency at the time valued 1 pound equal to 20 shillings making this property’s value more than six times the property occupied by William Bryan.

1851 House book pages for Coolroe. William Bryan is on top of last page. Click on a page to expand.

The second house, occupied by Moses Clur, has a quality rating of 2B and measures 38 feet by 16 feet by 6.5 feet, for a total of 60 measures. This property, although smaller than the one occupied by James Pendergardt, has a similar value of 1 pound, 9 shillings, and 1 pence. This appears to be due to its quality of 2 which means: Thatched house built with stone or brick and lime mortar.

The only structures with valuations close to the house occupied by William Bryan are identified as an office barn at six shillings and an office stable valued at seven shillings. The office barn has a quality rating of 3B and is 22 feet by 13.5 feet by 5.5 feet with a total of 29 measures. The office stable also has a quality rating of 3B and is 15.5 feet by 18.5 feet by 6.5 feet for 28 measures. This indicates that the house occupied by the William Bryan family was on the order of 260 square feet, or 18.5 feet by 14 feet. It most likely would have been a “thatched house with stone walls with mud or puddle mortar; dry stone walls pointed or mud walls of the best kind.” The condition of the house would have been “medium, slightly decayed, but in good repair.” The Cottage Ology web site has a history of Irish cottages and it says: “The most popular form of cottage is that with the living area at the center with the hearth fireplace and a bedroom on either end. The ceiling of the living area usually extended to the open rafters although the space over the two bedrooms was often utilized as loft sleeping areas.” At only 18.5 feet wide, the house probably only had a bedroom on one side with the main room having a hearth. Once William and Anna’s youngest child was born in 1850, there would have been a minimum of eight people living in this house.

Tithe Applotment Books

Prior to the Griffith’s Valuation, a survey of the value of property was carried out from 1823 to 1838 to determine how much tithe each landholder would pay. The Tithe Applotment Books record the results of the survey. The National Archives of Ireland provides the records on-line. A search produced the list of occupants for Coolroe shown in the table below. The columns labeled Measure are actually a mix of the columns labeled “Quality Statute Measure” and “Roads Rivers Waste and Tithe Free.” The entries with cabin had no quality statute measures. The measures are given in acres, roods, and perches. It is not known why some of the properties are numbered and others are not. The page from the Tithe Applotment Book is shown below the table.

List of occupants in Coolroe Tithe Applotment Book.

Name	Measure			Name	Measure
Name	A.	R.	P.	Name	A.	R.	P.
1 Oliver St. George	76			21 Thomas Mcdonniel	Cabin
2 Lorenzo Stone	110	2	20	22 John Bacthop alias John Baulk	76	2	2
3 John Freany	8	1	9	24 John Bacthop alias John Baulk	16	1	26
4 David Foster	1	2	19	John Bacthop alias John Baulk	7		9
5 John Howlet	1	2	19	27 Martin Mcdonniel	4	2	4
6 Joseph Stone	107	2		28 John Mcdonniel	2	1	14
8 Owen Jourdin	14	1	30	29 Patrick Kelley	Cabin
9 John Nowland	74		25	30 Michael Mulloy	23		31
10 Margaret Pender	38	3	20	Widow Lyons	Cabin
11 Martin Howard	Cabin			William Williams	Cabin
12 John Jenkinson	16		18	Thomas Sunderland	Cabin
15 Ann Jenkinson	22	3	22	John ~~Bryne~~ Byrne	Cabin
16 Martin Roach	2	1	13	Mary Kerreven	Cabin
17 James Conners	1	1	16	Andrew Hughes	Cabin
20 James Murphy	17	1	10	Patrick Foster	Cabin
Total					623	0	27

Tithe Applotment Book page for Coolroe, County Carlow. Click page to expand.

The entry for John Byrne had a transcription error in the National Archives of Ireland database. As seen in the figure below, it is clearly John Byrne which is equivalent to Burns, not John Bryne which would be equivalent to Bryan/Brien.

This entry in the Tithe Applotment Book was incorrectly translated as John Bryne.

This means there isn’t an occupant in the list with a surname of Brien for Coolroe. The baptism records for William Brien and Anna Kelly’s children are listed in the following table. It is noted that the first baptism for John was on July 30, 1837. The second sponsor for John was Mary Pender and a Margaret Pender is found in the list of occupants of Coolroe in the above table. The other sponsor, Thomas Brien, is believed to have been William’s brother. Other surnames in common between the baptism sponsors and the occupants of Coolroe in the Tithe Applotment records are Roach and McDonald/Mcdonniel. The National Archives of Ireland identified the Tithe Applotment records as being from 1837. Given the absence of an occupant with the surname of Brien in the tithe list and the baptism record indicating William Brien lived in Coolroe at the time, it was initially concluded that William and Anna must have been living with Patrick Kelly and that he could be Anna’s brother or uncle.

Baptism records for children of William O’Brien and Ann Kelly in County Carlow
Name	Date	Parrish	Address	Sponsor 1		Sponsor 2
Name	Date	Parrish	Address	First	Last	First	Last
John	30-Jul-1837	Clonegal	Coolroe	Thomas	Brien	Mary	Pender
Ellen	10-May-1840	Clonegal	Coolroe	Thomas	Bryan	Mary	Roach
Anne	04-Aug-1844	Clonegal	Coolroe	James	Pender	Mary	Foster
Mary	14-Aug-1846	Clonegal	Coolroe	William	Doyle	Mary	Breene
Bridget	10-Jan-1849	Clonegal	Coolroe	William	Connolly	Bridget	McDonald
Thomas	13-Jan-1850	Clonegal	Coolroe	John	McDonald	Bridget	McDonald

Given John’s baptism at the end of July 1837, a search of the Tithe Applotment records was made in an effort to identify when in 1837 the records were collected. The pages of the book do not contain dates for the various townlands. There are dates on the first and last pages written by the assessor, George Sherwood. The first page is hard to read but it has a date of 10 February 1834 and the date on the last page is without question 7 March 1834 as shown in the figure below. Subsequent pages have notes written by George Sherwood about his assignment and they are dated 1833. It is unknown why the on-line records show a date of 1837 but clearly the records were three years earlier. This weakens the assumption that Patrick Kelley was a brother or uncle of Anna and that the William Brien family must have been living with him in 1837.

George Sherwood’s note at the end of the Tithe Applotment book containing the record for Coolroe.

The Tithe Applotment records were searched for occupants with a surname of Brien in the Parish of Moyacomb, which is the parish for Coolroe. The results are listed in the table below. These records are from the book collected by George Sherwood discussed above, making them all from 10 February 1834 to 7 March 1834. The records have numerous transcription errors and alternative spellings of the townlands. The current spelling for the townlands are given in parentheses. Barnamuinga was identified using the Ordnance Survey maps from 1854 by finding another townland on the same page as Barnamuinga.

1834 Occupants with surname of Brien/Bryan living in the Parish of Moyacomb.

Surname	Forename	Townland/Street	County	Distance to Coolroe (Miles)	Quantity
Surname	Forename	Townland/Street	County	Distance to Coolroe (Miles)	A	R	P
Bryan	William	Ballyredmond	Carlow	1.9			31
Bryan	Patrick	Clonegall	Carlow	3.5			5
Bryan	Edward	Killenny (Kilcarry)	Carlow	3.3	21	3	16
Bryan	Peter	Killcarry (Kilcarry)	Carlow	3.3	21	3	26
Bryan	James	Basnamunnia (Barnamuinga)	Wicklow	7.2	13	1	18
Bryan	Richard	Urelands Alias Newry	Wicklow	4.7	2	1	19
Bryan	Dennis	Ballyshonock	Wexford	5.0	Cabin

As the table shows, the Parish of Moyacomb lies in three different counties, Carlow, Wicklow, and Wexford. The distances from each townland to Coolroe where the William Brien family lived from 1837 on are also included in the table above. The three entries with large amounts of land (Edward, Peter, and James) are less likely to be close relatives of William Brien than the others simply because their properties are large enough to support several families. The occupant closest to Coolroe is a William Bryan in Ballyredmond, County Carlow. Using Anna Kelly O’Brien’s estimated birth year of 1812, William Brien would have been at least 22 years old in 1834 assuming he was no younger than Anna which is certainly old enough to be identified as the occupier of a property. As the map below shows, it is a 36 minute walk from Ballyredmond to William Brien’s house in Coolroe. The other townlands are an hour or more away from Coolroe. The Griffith’s Valuation records and the associated record books were examined, and no William Brien was listed. Therefore, it is possible that the Tithe Applotment record for William Bryan in 1834 is for the same William Brien listed in the Griffith’s Valuation records in 1851.

Google satellite view showing the distance between Ballyredmond and Coolroe.

Martin and Mary Kelly

As discussed in the earlier O’Brien-Kelly family page, it is known that Anna’s parents were Martin and Mary Kelly. A reference to a Martin Kelly was found in the book “Clonegal in 1798” and his address was given as Lackabeg Township, County Carlow. No other reference to a Martin Kelly was found for the Lackabeg, Coolroe, or Clonegal areas. A listing for a Catherine Kelly in Lackabeg was found in the published Griffith’s Valuation records and several Kelly families were found in the censuses collected in 1901 and 1911.

The Valuation Books provided no additional information on the Kelly family. The Tithe Applotment Books have several entries for a Martin Kelly but none in Lackabeg where it was thought they lived. The record of a Martin Kelly that is closest to Lackabeg is for Beaufield, County Wexford. Beaufield is in the parish of Moyacomb which is the same parish for Clonegal and Coolroe. As shown in the map below, Beaufield is about five miles to the east of Lackabeg and about three miles from Clonegal.

Google Maps shows Beaufield, County Wexford is five miles east of Lackabeg, County Carlow.

Lackabeg is in the civil parish of Barragh. A search of Barragh for Martin Kelly produced only one possibility, a Widow Kelly in Raheen, County Carlow, some 12 miles from Lackabeg and 10 miles from Coolroe. A search was then made of the parish of Moyacomb. The search was made without the inclusion of a surname or given name to eliminate missed records due to alternate spellings of Kelly. The table below lists all the occupants in the parish of Moyacomb with a surname equivalent to Kelly from the Tithe Applotment Books in 1834.

Occupants with surname of Kelly in 1834 Tithe Applotment records for the Parish of Moyacomb.

Surname	Forename	Townland/Street	County	Distance to Coolroe (Miles)
Kelley	Patrick	Coolroe	Carlow	0.0
Kelley	Patrick	Balisland	Wicklow	8.2
Kelley	Thomas	Ballinvortha (Ballynavortha)	Wicklow	< 1.0 to 1.8
Kelley	Mary	Ballinvortha (Ballynavortha)	Wicklow	< 1.0 to 1.8
Kelley	Widow	Ballinvortha (Ballynavortha)	Wicklow	< 1.0 to 1.8
Kelley	Michael	Meletia	Wicklow	6.8 to 7.2?
Kelley	Martin	Beaufield	Wexford	6.3
Kelly	Michael	Leany	Carlow	2.3
Kelly	Patrick	Balisland	Wicklow	8.2
Kelly	Henry	Minmore and Ballynocker	Wicklow	7.2
Kelly	Terence	Garryhastin	Wexford	4.1?

The list includes the Patrick Kelley in Coolroe and Martin Kelley in Beaufield as discussed earlier. Examination of the original books did not provide any additional information. Of the remaining occupants, the three listed in Ballinvortha (Ballynavortha) are of interest because of the entry for Widow Kelly as she could be Martin Kelly’s widow, Mary.

The distance to Coolroe is also provided in the table. Distances with a question mark are townlands that could not be identified by Google maps. Assuming the records were collected in some sense of geographical order, these distances were estimated using the townlands listed in the valuation book before and/or after the actual townland of interest.

Occupants in the Parish of Moyacomb with a surname of Kelly in the Tenement Valuation Books in 1852 are shown in the following table. Again, there are three occupants listed for the town of Ballynavortha, County Wicklow. As in the Tithe Applotment Book, there is a Thomas Kelly but no Mary or Widow Kelly. The Patrick Kelly could be the Patrick Kelley listed as an occupant in Coolroe in 1837. The page from the Tenement Valuation House Book for Ballynavortha is shown below (Click on the page to expand). No additional information is provided on the original page.

Kelly occupants in the Parish of Moyacomb in the Tenement Valuation Books from 1852.

Forename	Date of Valuation	Book	County	Townland	Distance to Coolroe (Miles)
Michael	27 Oct 1852	House book	Wicklow	Balisland	8.2
Patrick	6 Nov 1852	House book	Wicklow	Ballynavortha	1.8
Thomas	6 Nov 1852	House book	Wicklow	Ballynavortha	1.8
John	6 Nov 1852	House book	Wicklow	Ballynavortha	1.8
Rob	17 May 1845	Field book	Wexford	Ballyshonock	5.0
Michl	Sep 1852	House book	Wexford	Enniscorthy	19.0
Anastasia	18 Nov 1852	House book	Wicklow	Moylisha	3.7
John	27 Oct 1852	House book	Wicklow	Park	6.1
Michael	27 Oct 1852	House book	Wicklow	Park	6.1
John	27 Oct 1852	House book	Wicklow	Raheengraney	5.8

Tenement Valuation House Book page for Ballynavortha, County Wicklow, November 6, 1852.

The distance from Coolroe to Ballynavortha is shown in the map below. The straight line distance is less than one mile and there are paths seen in the satellite view to support this route.

Google satellite view showing William Brien’s house in Coolroe, County Carlow and Ballynavortha, County Wicklow (Red Marker). The walking route is less than two miles and the straight line distance is less than one.

Although the supporting evidence is relatively thin, it is assumed that the Kellys living in Ballynavortha are Anna Kelly’s relatives, her mother, sister or aunt, and three brothers or uncles. This assumption is based on the closeness Ballynavortha to Coolroe, the listing for a Widow Kelly in 1834, and the listings for Patrick Kelley/Kelly in Coolroe, 1834, and Ballynavortha, 1854. Also, assuming the Widow Kelly listed in the Tithe Applotment record in 1834 was Anna’s mother does not preclude the family living in Lackabeg in 1798.

The page from the Griffith’s Valuation for Ballynavortha is shown below. It appears that Thomas and John Kelly have a shared valuation as indicated by the parentheses for their listing. They are shown as occupying houses, offices, and land at locations a and b in section 2 of Ballynavortha. Patrick Kelly is identified as the occupier of a house in section 1 with a letter indicator of d. The immediate lessor is Earl Fitzwilliam for the properties occupied by Thomas and John. Peter McDaniel is the immediate lessor for the house occupied by Patrick.

1852 Tenement Valuation record for Ballynavortha, County Wicklow (from Ask About Ireland).

Ask About Ireland provides a link to the Ordnance Survey maps referenced by the Tenement Valuation record, Ord. S. 42 & 47, in this case. The following map, from Ask About Ireland, shows Ballynavortha on the right and William Brien’s house in Coolroe is to the left. The outside boundary of Ballynavortha is outlined in gold and the inner sections are identified in a reddish orange. Section 1 is the area with Ballynavortha marked in gold, section 2 is to the left below section 1 and section 3 is to the left of section 2. There should be lower case letters in each section to mark the houses. There are three versions of the map at Ask About Ireland and none of them include the house letters which is unfortunate. The expanded view of Ballynavortha shows several structures in sections 1 and 2 and the houses occupied by the Kellys are most likely among them. Google satellite views of Ballynavortha show that the area is very much the same as it was in the 1800s. The area in section 2 that had houses in the 1800s is now pasture land but the complex in section 1 still has buildings.

Ordnance Survey map showing Ballynavortha, County Wicklow outlined in gold and William Brien’s house in Coolroe, County Carlow (from Ask About Ireland).

Expanded view of Ordnance Survey map of Ballynavortha, County Wicklow. John and Thomas Kelly were occupants of houses in section 2, probably in the area to the right of the number 2, and Patrick Kelly had a house in section 1, probably in the area to the right of the label (from Ask About Ireland).

1901 and 1911 Census Records

The census records for 1901 and 1911 available on-line at the National Library of Ireland were examined in the original research for Briens and Kellys in the towns of Coolroe, Clonegal, and Lackabeg. The records were searched again for Kellys living in Ballynavortha, County Wickford. A family headed by Timothy Kelly was found in both census years. Details of the records are provided in the following table. Timothy Kelly was born around 1832 indicating he may have been a nephew of Anna Kelly. Either Timothy Kelly’s daughter, Julia, was married twice or Timothy’s grandchildren, Timothy and Julia Brennan, are children of another daughter. It is concluded that any remaining relatives of Anna Kelly in Ballynavortha would have a surname of Brennan and possibly Whelan, not Kelly.

1901 Census, Ballynavortha, County Wicklow, Ireland
Surname	Forename	Age	Sex	Relation to head	Religion	Occupation	Marriage	Where Born	Education
Kelly	Timothy	69	Male	Head of Family	Roman Catholic	Farmer	Widower	Co. Wicklow	Read & Write
Whelan	Julia	30	Female	Daughter	Roman Catholic	Farmer's Daughter	Married	Co. Wicklow	Read & Write
Whelan	Michael	30	Male	Son in Law	Roman Catholic	Farm Laborer	Married	Co. Carlow	Read & Write
Brennan	Timothy	11	Male	Grand Son	Roman Catholic	Scholar	Not Married	Co. Carlow	Read & Write
Brennan	Julia	5	Female	Grand Daughter	Roman Catholic		Not Married	Co. Carlow	Cannot Read

1911 Census, Ballynavortha, County Wicklow, Ireland
Surname	Forename	Age	Sex	Relation to head	Religion	Occupation	Marriage	Where Born	Education
Kelly	Timothy	79	Male	Head of Family	Roman Catholic	Farmer	Widower	Co. Wicklow	Read & Write
Brennan	Timothy	21	Male	Grand Son	Roman Catholic	Farmer's Son	Not Married	Co. Carlow	Read & Write
Brennan	Julia	15	Female	Grand Daughter	Roman Catholic	Farmer's Daughter	Not Married	Co. Carlow	Read & Write
Whelan	Martin	43	Male	Servant	Roman Catholic	Farm Servant	Not Married	Co. Wicklow	Read & Write

Conclusion

This update of the O’Brien-Kelly family looked at original documents collected for the Tenement Survey in 1852 and the Tithe Applotment records from 1834, as these were not included in the original research. It was found that the on-line records contained numerous transcription errors, most notably the wrong date was listed for the Tithe Applotment records. This finding fortifies the importance of reviewing the original records whenever possible. This update started with the knowledge that William Brien and Anna Kelly lived in Coolroe, County Carlow from 1837 when their oldest son John W. was born to at least 1854 when the Griffith’s Valuation records were collected.

The main findings of this research are as follows:

The Brien family lived in a very modest house in Coolroe. It was probably not much bigger than 18.5 feet by 14 feet. The size and condition of their house was estimated using other structures of equivalent valuation in House Book records for Coolroe collected in 1854.

William Brien probably lived in Ballyredmond, County Carlow before moving to Coolroe by 1837. Ballyredmond is less than two miles from Coolroe. This may be where his parents lived. This is based on an 1834 Tithe Applotment record for a William Bryan in Ballyredmond and no record for a Brien in Coolroe.

Anna Kelly probably lived in Ballynavortha, County Wicklow before she married William Brien and moved to Coolroe, County Carlow. This is based on the listings for several Kellys in Ballynavortha, including a Widow Kelly in 1834, and the closeness of the two towns. Although this does not preclude the family living in Lackabeg, County Carlow in 1798, it makes it less likely.

Possible relatives of Anna Kelly include a sister or aunt, Mary Kelly, and three brothers or uncles, Patrick, Thomas, and John Kelly. This is based on the assumption that Anna Kelly lived in Ballynavortha before she married William Brien and the Tithe Applotment and Griffith’s Valuation records for the town. Other possible relatives of Anna Kelly are Timothy Kelly, Julia Kelly Brennan Whelan, Timothy Brennen, and Julia Brennen. This is based on the assumption that Anna Kelly lived in Ballynavortha before she married William Brien and the census records from 1901 and 1911 for Ballynavortha.

These findings are mostly for guiding future research as none of them are supported by hard evidence.

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